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Permalink Reply by elaine kilshaw on August 11, 2010 at 11:28am

I dont believe the majority of people are religious.
If prayers could be heard then a loving god or gods would not be able to bear watching the people of Parkistan suffer in floods.
It seems the men are annoyed their wives are losing clothing and are not covered up, oh dear..
I bet that a lot of prayers have been said for these poor people but it doesnt seems to be getting any better does it.
Religion is great to let you get away with doing nothing as it is best left to god.
Come on now.

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Permalink Reply by noisician on August 10, 2010 at 4:40pm

"organized religion doesn't work" in what sense?

that crap seems to be awfully popular and powerful! :)

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Permalink Reply by Jon Heim on August 10, 2010 at 4:42pm

there is a bit of truth in that. lol

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Permalink Reply by Doug Reardon on August 10, 2010 at 4:15pm

I worked with the chronically mentally ill for over 25 years. I constantly had to remind my staff that crazy does not mean dumb. There are many very intelligent people who are crazier than loons, Newton, is a name that comes to mind.

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Permalink Reply by noisician on August 10, 2010 at 4:41pm

I think practicing doctors are like engineers: in the applied sciences you can probably get away with less consideration of the scientific method and grasp of the full impact of skepticism, and still be effective. Once you learn the material and how to use it, you are good to go.

But in research / experimental science, it seems like Christians would really need their compartmentalizing module running on full power!

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Permalink Reply by Jason on August 12, 2010 at 6:39am

What gets me is the field of psychology and psychiatry. If I went into either doctor’s office of the given fields and told them I mentally speak with an invisible man ….. They would lock me up and put me in Belleview – one flight over the cuckoo’s nest. But if I told them that it was God…. They would say,”oh- that’s ok”.

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Permalink Reply by Nelson on August 12, 2010 at 9:13am

in fairness, the DSM defines a delusion as a "false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everybody else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture."
you can see how religion doesn't fit this definition due to its notion of a belief that is not ordinarily accepted by other members of a person's culture, that is believed despite what almost everybody else believes. when it comes to whether belief in god is a delusion in this clinical sense a person might also take issue with the definition's specifying that a delusion be something that is believed despite incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary.
so, yeah, given the definition of "delusion" that psychologists and psychiatrists work with it's really not surprising that they're not bothered by a person's talk of speaking to god as opposed to speaking to their bread toaster.
to be clear, i'm not saying that belief in god isn't still a delusion in our day to day conversational sense, just pointing out why psychologists and psychiatrists don't in a clinical sense.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Heim on August 12, 2010 at 1:05pm

you made a good point.

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